


stage blood is not enough

by nantes (titians)



Series: put on your red shoes and dance the blues [2]
Category: Actor RPF, One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ballet, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-18
Updated: 2013-06-18
Packaged: 2017-12-15 09:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/847937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titians/pseuds/nantes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>He says, "It's the first time I've ever played a prince," taking a breath in between shoving forkfuls of noodles into his mouth.  Nick just raises an eyebrow, stays quiet and keeps eating.  Louis says, "Do you think I'll get a crown."</em>
</p><p> </p><p>OR</p><p>Never work with animals, children or your friends.  Or people you're fucking.  Putting on a ballet of Macbeth is hard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	stage blood is not enough

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gillyweeds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gillyweeds/gifts).



> (quasi-sequel to [all fairytales have sinister morals](http://archiveofourown.org/works/711008/chapters/1314592).)

**001.**

She shrugs off her t-shirt, then stretches her arms over her head. The angle of her stomach makes her ribs stick out underneath the grey cotton. Harry isn't sure if he should be worried or not; he doesn't have a lot of time to consider it as he gets ushered from the room by Ruth five seconds later.

Zayn steps in behind Gemma and clasps his hands around her waist.

She drops her arms and turns to smile at him.

Harry's rehearsal studio is two up. He scratches the love bite Gemma left on his neck two nights ago. He doesn't smile when Louis greets him as he enters. Louis doesn't seem to take it too personally.

 

**002.**

Nick gets Banquo, as expected. But Louis gets Malcolm. He says, "It's the first time I've ever played a prince," taking a breath in between shoving forkfuls of noodles into his mouth. Nick just raises an eyebrow, stays quiet and keeps eating. Louis says, "Do you think I'll get a crown."

This, Nick answers.

"You'll get Macbeth's. After Harry cuts his head off."

His sentence structure makes Louis frown. He stops eating to sigh but Nick turns his attention back to his food, sucking a noodle into his mouth with a smack of his lips. Louis thinks he's taking the whole thing very calmly.

The next day at lunch, he says this to Gemma. He explains, "If this fails, like. If we really suck, we could all lose our jobs." Despite the seriousness of his words, Louis can't help smiling because Gemma looks at least a little bit concerned.

He adds, "Except you. You'll get to keep your job. Won't you?"

"I might lose the head dancer spot, but I think I'd be safe enough if we tanked. So will you," she says, honest and wrapping an arm around his shoulders in a comforting sort of way. Louis feels he probably smells but Gemma buries her nose into the crook of his neck.

Louis says, "Thanks."

 

;;

 

He goes to first rehearsal and it's weird. Ruth calls him a prince and tells him to straighten up, that's not how a prince would carry himself. He wonders if this is what Harry felt like after he got cast as Siegfried. Probably not, he reasons. Since Harry was a lead and the leads in this production are also the villains. And Louis doesn't have a princess.

No.

Louis gets a dead body and Harry as Macduff instead.

 

**003.**

Greg saves them a booth because Greg's sound like that. He saves them a booth and brings over a round of usuals so none of them have to get up. Harry lets Gemma tuck herself into his side while Nick pays and no one argues about it, too tired to even bother getting mad.

Zayn's the first to tag out.

He mumbles something about time differences and calling Zac as he leaves and everyone just lets him go. They weren't planning on making this a late one.

Gemma falls asleep against Harry for three minutes in the middle of round of drinks #3.

Harry takes it as their cue to leave. He gently moves her out of the booth, but her foot catches on the leg of Nick's chair and she topples forward with a shocked exhale of air. Three pairs of hands reach for her − Louis almost knocks down his own beer as he stretches across the table towards her. But Harry shakes his head and says, "It's ok, I've got her." Because it's true, he does.

They get a taxi back to his place. He plans the meal he's gonna make for most of the journey, since Gemma is too tired for proper conversation.

He says, "You can take a shower, if you like." Then realises that he's just told her she smells but Gemma's already moving down the hallway, stating something about borrowing a towel. Like Harry was going to let her shower but not give her a towel.

He heads for the kitchen.

Everything is almost finished when Harry looks up at the clock.

With a sigh, he heads for his bedroom. Yep. As he expected, as he plodded down the hallway, trying to remember if he turned off the hob or not, he finds Gemma flat out on his bed, fully dressed and unshowered with a towel folded neatly on her chest. Her mouth is open and her snores are soft, almost scoffing noises more than anything else.

Harry doesn't really want to eat without her.

When Louis gets home − announced by a click of his key in the latch, the sound surprising Harry since he had assumed Louis would be going home with Nick tonight − Harry has fridged most of the food and is currently scrubbing down the top of the oven where the pasta boiled over, starchy water cooking itself to the black glass top.

"Gemma not come back with you?" he asks, shrugging off his jacket.

The cloth in Harry's hand squeaks against the glass.

"She's in my room. Asleep," he replies.

Louis gives him a nod.

 

**004.**

Two weeks in and. Louis is ready to never speak to Zayn or Gemma again.

Ok, ok, ok. He'll give them credit where credit is due. They are Daniel Day Lewis-ing the fuck out of their characters. Seriously, some days they look at Niall with such judgemental, awful looks Louis worries about his safety. But just because they're playing two of Shakespeare's most villainous characters does not mean they have the right to be assholes to everyone.

Maybe they were always assholes together but he used to let it slide before. Because Nick says, "They're no worse than usual."

 

**005.**

Zayn misses Zac. He doesn't bother telling anyone since a. it's obvious and b. talking about it makes him feel pathetic. During rehearsals, Gemma keeps the non-Macbeth and ballet talk to a minimum. But that's mostly out of necessity. They're not only rehearsing an entire ballet but choreographing one too.

Of course, they could have gone and done Vasiliev's production but. Ha. That would have been too easy.

No. They had to go and ask Idris to write an entire score and ask Ruth to work ten times harder than she usually does, and push themselves fifty times harder than they usually do as well. If it works out, they could make history. But if it fails they're all kinda fucked. It's a lot of pressure.

Zayn aches all over and wishes Zac was here for this.

 

;;

 

"They'll be red for the actual performance," Ruth says but Gemma doesn't comment, wrapping the strands of cloth between her fingers then letting them unravelling, her palms up and she stares at them. Like Lady Macbeth staring at the imaginary blood on her hands.

She goes up en pointe, cracks her neck on her shoulders and says, "We can always do it with lights."

Zayn watches her move.

He wants to say something about her shoulders. She's wearing them too weakly for a woman on the verge of absolute insanity but. It's nearly 9pm. He has a cue in another two bars anyway, has to make his entrance and pull his sleepwalking wife back to him and their bed, so he stays quiet and counts off the beats in his head.

Gemma sinks back into him, her leg extended in the air. His hand fits under her knee as he lifts her.

In the play, Macbeth doesn't witness his wife's frantic sleepwalking. The servant pays the doctor to remain quiet and not tell him but for this version, they decided it would be better for Macbeth to see her. In the play, the scene ends and Lady Macbeth is still worrying, still washing her hands. She doesn't appear again. But in their ballet, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth dance a (third) pas des deux and he takes her away with him. She then comes back again and her suicide occurs before Macbeth's eyes.

It makes more sense than the way Shakespeare did it.

The way Shakespeare wrote it was sloppy, dismissing her off into madness and solitude to die alone and without her husband. At the end of the play it almost feels as if Macbeth no longer loves his wife, despite their co-dependent relationship earlier in the play. And maybe that's how Shakespeare wanted to portray it. But. That doesn't make any fucking sense.

They all agreed that as they were brainstorming.

The Macbeths went into the web of crimes, a wife pushing a husband to kill for the throne. So, the only fitting way for them to go out is with a wife's death pushing a husband into facing his own.

Zayn's hands cup Gemma's waist as she spins a perfect pirouette.

Slowly, she pulls away from him. But Zayn draws her back, his fingers wrapping around her wrist. She all but falls against him. Actually, Gemma stumbles a little, but Zayn smiles and hides it from Ruth for her, lifting her so he can carry her off stage. She smiles at him before she goes limp and loose in his arms.

"Thanks," she says, once she's back on her own two feet.

Today, her shoes are black. For the actual performance they'll be red. She's already bent down to untie them, the two of them calling it quits for the day, when Zayn replies, "No problem." He's a little slow.

Gemma looks up at him.

"You ok?"

Zayn gives her a nod and she smiles.

 

;;

 

On Tuesday night he calls Zac but he doesn't pick up.

 

**006.**

Louis' thighs ache and he really really really needs to go to sleep for the entire weekend but he's so close. So fucking close and Nick's angling his hips just right, so Louis digs his nails into his and keeps moving. Chasing his orgasm that has been building, fuzzy and fizzy and hot in the pit of his stomach for the last minute or so.

"C'mon," he whines, breath hitching when Nick pushes up as he's bouncing down. He has the gall to laugh. Louis groans and repeats, "C' _mon_."

 

;;

 

(The first time they fucked it was in a bar − not the Duke's Head, because Louis never would be able to meet Greg's eye again if they had − and Louis was still wearing makeup from the night's performance.

They had all been in a booth together and when Gemma had slipped out to get another round in, Louis had clambered onto Nick's lap and nudged their noses together. He could have gone back to his seat once Gemma had passed but he decided kissing Nick was a much better idea, bearing down on him with his knees either side of Nick's thighs. He laughed against his lips when Nick's fingers squeezed his butt.

Zayn had slipped out to find Gemma pretty quickly after that, Harry filtering off too and Louis was all but carried into the bathrooms, biting Nick's neck as they went.

They fucked in one of the stalls. Not the disabled one, even though it was the biggest but that would have been rude and dickish and they had already started making out in front of their friends and Louis didn't think they needed to annoy anyone else. So, second stall from the left instead. Nick just about remembered to flip the latch but that was ok. It matched the rest of the mood, fast and clumsy and funny; Louis laughed as much as he moaned, Nick grunting against his ear and fucking into him harder every time he did.

Afterwards, Nick wiped Louis' come back into Louis' quiff with a self satisfied smirk on his kiss-bruised mouth.

Just to annoy him.)

 

;;

 

The next morning Nick makes breakfast but Louis isn't hungry.

Breakfast means he has to get up, since Nick is picky about crumbs in his bed and all Louis wants to do is bury himself under the covers and not come out until Monday. It might be a little sentimental, but he's happy here. Happier than in rehearsals, at least, where Zayn and Gemma are assholes and Harry seems to worry about everything and no one is really happy any more.

Even if this works out, even if they put on the best performance ever, Louis worries they're never going to be friends again.

Nick calls, "I made bacon the way you like it." But Louis doesn't move.

 

**007.**

This week Gemma is tired and irritable and her collarbones stick out more than they did before. Definitely. But Harry seems to be the only one to notice it because when he says it to Nick, Nick shakes his head and says, "She always loses a little weight at the start of the season. Don't worry about it."

Harry wants to believe him but-

He's always had big hands. Long, large fingers with palms the size of dinner plates. But on Monday, when he reaches for Gemma's hand but gets her wrist instead, his hands dwarf hers. His hand swallows up hers, from fingertip to the jut of her bony wrist, all pale, thin bones − like the rest of her − and Harry just wants to wrap her up in a hug and put her to bed.

She seems so much bigger on stage. But the dancer in front of him now is a tiny thing.

It's dumb but Harry wants to take her to the zoo. He wants to kiss Gemma on the mouth until she's laughing, smiling again because it feels like it's been forever since she last smiled and it went the whole way to her eyes. He wants to make her dinner and let her pick the movie they watch, curled together on the couch.

He wants her to talk to him about it.

 

;;

 

"Stop, stop," Gemma orders.

Zayn lets her slip from his shoulders, releasing her wrist. Her feet make no noise as she gently steps onto the ground. In one fluid movement she's sitting cross legged behind Zayn with her face in her hands. From the side of the stage, Harry watches the two of them, waiting for. Something.

For a minute, Zayn just leaves her.

Gemma sits with her face buried behind her fingers, her shoulders rising and falling with every breath she takes and Zayn just stands there, letting her take a minute.

Harry wants to run on stage and hug her. But he doesn't. He isn't even meant to be back here, watching them, was only let out of the room to ask Ruth something but found this happening instead and decided to stay. He really should get back. But he wants to see what happens next.

Carefully, Zayn places his hand on Gemma's shoulder. It's a soft, tender movement and it makes her emerge out of her hands.

She smiles at him.

"C'mon," he urges, and Gemma lets him take her arm.

(His hands don't appear as big on her as Harry's do.)

Zayn pulls at her. She doesn't get up. With his fingers gently wrapped around her elbow, he tugs a bit harder this time and she falls backwards. Zayn's grip keeps her from hitting the floor. He keeps tugging. Pulling her after him as he steps forwards until her legs are uncrossed, long and spread out fully in front of her and he stands at the front of the stage.

When he lets go of Gemma's arm, she flops down onto the wooden floor beneath her.

She laughs up at Zayn.

Harry walks away as disappointment situates itself around his shoulder. (With himself, with Zayn, with Gemma. He can't really tell.)

 

**008.**

"Let's just go out."

Louis looks less than enthused by the idea. He sighs and tucks his hands deeper into the pockets of his hoodie. It doesn't deter Nick. "C'mon," he says. "We'll go out, get something to eat and I promise I'll have you home at a suitable hour."

Unlike everyone else, Nick doesn't look tired. The bags under his eyes are no bigger than usual and his shoulders aren't slouched under the weight of. Everything. It's disgusting.

Louis shakes his head.

"I'd rather not." He asks, "Can't we just go to bed?"

With a smile, Nick nods. Louis accepts the hand he sticks out for him, and Nick leads the way to his room.

 

**009.**

Gemma steals a prawn out of his salad and asks, "How's your prince?"

Briefly, Nick feigns annoyance but he knows he wasn't going to eat it anyway. He picks another out of the noodles with his fork, placing it in Gemma's eye line and answers, "Tired. He likes to sleep a lot." There's an easy joke in there about Sleeping Beauty but it's almost too easy, so Nick lets it slip away and lets Gemma root through his salad for a chunk of red pepper.

 

**010.**

Zayn calls Zac and cries for a solid fifteen minutes at him, complains about the ache in his shoulders and how much he misses him in the same breath.

 

**011.**

Harry has all of about ten seconds to hand the crown to Louis − but not crown him, that's Stan's job − and then run onto the upper level of the stage to pick up Gemma's "dead" body and put her down on the ground next to Zayn.

Zayn is meant to be headless but that's kinda difficult to replicate in a live show.

Harry gets an arm around her waist and pulls her into his chest. It's the first time today he hasn't tripped on the way up the ramp to her and even though it breaks his character, he can't help smiling about it. Gemma smiles back at him, completely out of character since she's meant to be dead but. Harry beams.

When he places her down next to Zayn, he watches their fingers meet, Zayn curling his fingertips in against hers.

They were perfectly cast as the Macbeths.

 

**012.**

The dress rehearsal goes awfully but Louis can't bring himself to care when Nick gets his mouth around his dick, his tights pulled down to his knees and the dressing room door locked behind Louis' back. He gets him off quickly, using everything Louis likes until his knees are almost buckling and he bends in half at the waist, folding himself over Nick and whining his name out into the empty, silent air of the room.

"Feeling better," Nick asks, coy as he wipes saliva away from the corner of his mouth with his thumb.

Louis sinks to the ground as he nods. "Yeah," he gets out, voice hoarse.

"Wanna go home and sleep?"

"Not really," Louis replies.

 

**013.**

Gemma brings him a bouquet of roses on opening night. Louis can't help smiling. He's not sure which of them pulls the other one in for a hug but it feels like it's more him than her. Yesterday, he had never wanted to see a stage again, never wanted to speak to any of the other dancers, never wanted to throw a jéte or stand in second position again. But today, with red roses on his dressing room table and red shoes on Gemma's feet, Louis pulls her in and laughs brightly into the line of her neck as her palms press flat against his velvet cloak.

"We all need a little pampering when we play royalty," she says.

"Thank you," he breathes back.

 

;;

 

Gemma's nails catch in his chainmail. Zayn shouldn't smile, shouldn't break character, not when his wife is trying to convince him to commit regicide but there's a smile on her face since her back is to the audience and Zayn wants to return it.

The music reaches a crescendo and pulls her to him, pulls the dagger from her hands and-

It takes only one member of the audience to start the applause and quickly it spreads through everyone else, like a wave. Zayn holds Gemma to him, her back still to the crowd and a smile still on her face but this time, he lets himself smile.

 

;;

 

Nick watches from the side of the stage as Harry lifts the crown and hands it to Louis. Louis, as Malcolm, looks overwhelmed and tired and battle weary; Louis, as Louis, looks very much the same. Nick doesn't mean to catch his eye.

But.

As Louis turns to Stan, who takes the crown from him. Takes it to crown Louis with it and it's in that moment Nick catches Louis' eye and smiles. Standing there, dressed as Banquo's ghost in whisps of white silk and pale grey tights, half-hiding behind the curtain's edge so no one else can see him − in the audience or on stage − Nick smiles at Louis, as Malcolm, getting crowned king.

The curtain drops and Nick all but runs onto stage for his bow.

Lady Macbeth ends up next to Macduff and Malcolm stands next to Banquo and that's not how they rehearsed it at dress rehearsal the other afternoon but. No one really gives a fuck.

 

**014.**

"Next season," Nick begins. Gemma is snoring lightly against Harry and Louis' hand sits on Nick's knee. No one is really listening to him at all, but Nick feels this needs to be said. "Next season, we're doing Checkmate. One act, 45 minutes long. Fuck it."

Zayn nods in agreement. He's the only one who does.

 

;;

 

When he gets home, he calls Zac and tells him, "We did it."

 

 

_ fin. _


End file.
